Iran unveils new drone and missile amid growing regional tensions

Iran said it will show off a new ballistic missile and advanced variant of a drone during a military parade held in Tehran on Saturday amid increasing tensions in the region over accusations that it has supplied arms to Russia for the Ukraine conflict.

Tehran says its solid-fuel missile, called Jihad, has a range of 1,000 km (over 600 miles). The upgraded version of Shahed-136 is the Shahed-136B, which has an operational range of more than 4,000 km (about 2,500 miles).

It witnessed the visit of newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to attend the celebration ceremony on the occasion of the Iran-Iraq war that took place from 1980 to 1988. He spoke of Iran’s fortified defense systems, saying “no demon even thinks about any aggression toward our dear Iran”. He criticized Israel by saying that unity of the Islamic world can easily challenge its actions.

Tensions in the Middle East have heightened since an attack launched by Hamas on October 7 against Israel, as hostility in Gaza increases amid hostilities along the northern border of Israel with Hezbollah. Recently, an Israeli airstrike hit Hezbollah in Beirut, killing some of the most elite forces in the group.

As a response to the situation, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States imposed new sanctions on Iran earlier this month, accusing the country of providing ballistic missiles to Russia in order to enhance its military maneuver in Ukraine. Iran had denied all the accusations leveled against it since the beginning.